As you all know from my Batman Arkham Asylum review, I LOVED that game. It was one of the best games I have ever played in 2009. We then got an unexpected surprise from the Spike Video Game Awards that gave us an unexpected cheer of joy. This joy can only be known as the SEQUEL to Arkham Asylum. I was totally hooked, and I just got excited from all the possibilities of what they could do. I then thought, “ What would I like in a sequel to Arkham Asylum?” I decided to list a few things that I would like to see.

Let’s start with the setting of the next game. The trailer showed us that we are not going to be on the island asylum anymore. Arkham Asylum is now an entire area of the Gotham city. I wouldn’t mind a free-roaming game-like setting, or a much longer linear adventure than the last game. If they made this next game free-roaming, they would have to put up multiple side quests, like in games like Assassin’s Creed 2 or Spiderman 2 the Video Game. The missions might get repetitious, but they could make them unique by making each group of grunts working for a specific villain like Penguin or Mr. Freeze. If they make it a long linear game, then that would be fine, but they would probably set up the game like Castlevania Symphony of the Night or the other later Castlevania games.

Next, let’s talk about the main heroes of this next game. I think they could include people of the Batman universe, like the Gotham Police force, Batgirl, Nightwing, and the third Robin. Outside the Batman universe, I think they don’t need to bring in heroes who have super powers. They could easily add Huntress, the Question, Hourman, and Wildcat. I don’t think heroes like Superman, Green Lantern or other heroes who have super powers need to be included. However, if they bring in villains who use magic-like powers, like Ra’s al Ghul, then I think they could throw in Zatanna or Doctor Fate, but this doesn’t need to be something like the TV show, Batman: the Brave and the Bold. They could even do something like what Resident Evil does, where you can play through a special mode in the game with the heroes I listed. They could also do a different mode where you play as the villains.

Since we just talked about the heroes, let’s talk about the villains! The first game had a good amount, but I found the roster to be very thin. The trailer did give us hints of some villains, like the Penguin and Catwoman. I think they could easily have Killer Croc, Scarecrow, and Bane easily return, but I think there needs to be more. I think they should add villains like Mr. Freeze, Killer Moth, Doctor Double X, Firefly, Copperhead, Clay Face, Toy Man, Two Face, Man-Bat, The Terrible Trio, and have The Riddler make a facial appearance along with Scarface. I think one villain I was most surprised not to see in the first game, besides Killer Moth, is the Mad Hatter. The Mad Hatter can use mind control and dress up a certain area of Gotham, like the book he is from. The grunts could wear disturbing psychotic versions of characters from the book also, which would be amazingly creepy and scary. Another thing is that Killer Moth could use the Titan serum to make himself into a humanoid moth, or make an army of mutated super moths or something. Black Mask could be the one helping the Joker out in the end, since I think Black Mask could easily be a great main antagonist working for the Joker alongside Harley Quinn, though I think there would be backstabbing involved with either Black Mask or the Joker. A weird story element that could happen is that the character Red Hood could appear, since in the comic books, Red Hood is Joker or Robin. It depends on which one you have seen this character in.

More Gadgets would also be nice. It would be cool if we could throw the explosive gel at enemies, or have a powerful tazer-like weapon. A jet pack would also be cool to have. Maybe different batman outfits like a freeze resistant suit with fire like gadgets for fighting Mr. Freeze, or maybe a heavily armored suit to fight Bane and other super muscular villains would be great. I think they should also keep the upgrading style, but make it easier to upgrade if they give us a bigger cast of villains, since it seemed to take forever to upgrade everything in the last game. They could also use more of the vehicles, like maybe use the Batmobile to help out with huge groups of villains, or maybe have a bat cycle to get to areas faster.

Overall, if they do ANY of the stuff I have listed, then I will be a happy camper, but I can see them doing a lot of what I listed for the sequel, and hopefully other games to make this a franchise, which would be awesome.